[AAACE-NLA] Helping Adult Learners in Hard Times
McGilloway, Susan
smcgilloway at ccbcmd.edu
Mon Dec 29 11:51:58 EST 2008
David,
Thank you for your comments. I agree with your comments regarding complex cognitive skills. My son is a carpenter and works with his hands. He is intelligent and definitely a kinesthetic learner so it is definitely appropriate for him. Students will need guidance in determining their learning style, multiple intelligences in orde to make the decision to enter a training program. Therefore, educating the total person and providing career guidance is as necessary as the cognitive. What of the student who is not a kinesthetic learner and is directed toward a trade program because, in the system, that is his or her only option? What of the poets, those interested in social service or allied healthcare programs? I agree that the programs Tom presents are good ones. I just don't think they apply to every student.
I agree that many of the trade jobs require a good mind. Electricians, for instance, require calculus level Math skills.
DLLR is the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. I would very much appreciate hearing from others who have made this transition.
FCE becomes behavioristic when the information presented is done so to manipulate the student into pursuing a particular direction. The students need other skills such as project based learning, research projects, writing projects to develop those skills.
Hybrid classes may not be appropriate for those at a basic skills level. Most of our students who are in need of basic skills do not have the technology resources to pursue such a course. Those who do have those resources may not wish to pursue a basic skills program and are at a higher Educational Functional Level.
Sue McGilloway
CAFL Career Advisor/Coordinator, Volunteers in Partnership
Center for Adult and Family Literacy
CCBC
443-840-3933 (phone)
410-285-9557 (fax)
Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human. Viktor Frankl
________________________________
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org on behalf of David Rosen
Sent: Mon 12/29/2008 8:16 AM
To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Helping Adult Learners in Hard Times
Hello Sue,
Do you equate Functional Context Education with behaviorism. If so, I wonder why. I see it as an engaging approach to highly motivating and often complex learning. The WOW strategies make sense to me, not only for putting women (and men) to work (or helping them get better jobs) but also, through FCE and micro-enterprise development , for including complex thinking skills. Granted, a rush to place people in jobs could undermine this, but it doesn't have to. Especially now that we have online and blended learning, we don't have to settle for the minimal basic skills learning that takes place in short-term training programs but can use that as an introduction to further basic skills (and other) education available in face-to-face, online and blended formats.
Sue, what does DLLR mean? Is that your state's Department of Labor? Did you mean that adult education in your state was transitioning from the state's Department of Education to its Department of Labor? If so, is your concern that Labor will see an education program as a short-term training intervention? I wonder what others' experience with such a change has been. Any advice for those in states that are transitioning from Education to Labor? Have the problems Sue appears to fear been a reality in your state? If so, have you been able to overcome them? If so, how?
Tom, have you given any thought to how FCE could/should operate in an online or blended learning (face-to-face and online) format? Has anyone?
I have a book to recommend (available for under $5.00 -- including postage -- at Amazon.com or for free at some public libraries) that illustrates how a training program (in this case a carpentry training program for high school students, Chapter 4, "A Vocabulary of Carpentry" ) teaches thinking skills. Entitled The Mind at Work, the book is by Mike Rose, editor of Literacy, a Critical Sourcebook, and author of Lives on the Boundary. In this book Rose, a keen observer, looks closely at jobs that are often regarded in the U.S. as for "those who work with their hands" (not with their minds). He presents compelling evidence that many of these jobs, for example waitressing, jobs in the building trades and others, require a good mind as well as an able body.
David J. Rosen
djrosen at theworld.com
On Dec 27, 2008, at 8:02 PM, McGilloway, Susan wrote:
I have been doing some more thinking about this issue of training of undereducated adults in hard economic times and realize that Tom's approach makes some sense, but still leaves me wishing for more. I am a graduate student in psychology and we have been learning about different approaches to changes in quality of life and what impacts people to change. I would like to offer some insight that I have from the perspective of one who believes we need to look at the total student when making decisions regarding approach to learning.
Learning is important, but only to the extent that it serves to bring about the self-actualization of the person to reach a higher goal or purpose. Even cognition goes beyond behaviorism. Cognition and critical thinking are structured processes that the mind carries on to make sense of knowledge, stimuli, emotion. Without cognition, the human is reduced to the animal species. Learning, when reduced to behavioral manipulation, is not learning in the true sense of the word, and it makes a mockery of education. I had an education professor who once stated that there is a difference between the teacher and the educator. The teacher is tunnel-versioned and sees the student as one to whom factual knowledge is paramount. A true educator is one who realizes that the student is a complex individual and that education involves shaping the whole person - mind, body, emotion, soul.
In our program, we are transitioning to DLLR and I fear the impact will be devastating. I fear that we will be asked to push students through classes at a faster rate so they can become employed without giving any attention to the hopes and dreams of some type of self actualization for these students. Instead of caring for these students as the precious diamonds they are, we may be asked to give them assembly line training as fast as can be done so they can go out and get another low paying, meaningless job that brings no satisfaction to their souls. What we are being asked to do is act as behaviorists who give facts as stimuli and require a rote response that is enough to get them out the door as fast as possible
Sue McGilloway
CAFL Career Advisor/Coordinator, Volunteers in Partnership
Center for Adult and Family Literacy
CCBC
410-285-9933 (phone)
410-285-9557 (fax)
________________________________
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org on behalf of tsticht at znet.com
Sent: Wed 12/24/2008 1:27 PM
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: [AAACE-NLA] Helping Adult Learners in Hard Times
December 24, 2008
Strategies for Education and Training of Undereducated Adults in Hard
Economic Times
Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
During these hard economic times there is clearly an urgent need for
undereducated adults to receive solid basic skills education in the context
of training for well paying jobs and areas of entrepreneurship. Of
particular concern is the need for education and training of many poorly
skilled women who are single and managing families on their own.
For several years I worked on and off with Wider Opportunities for Women
(WOW) located in Washington, DC, on adult literacy projects that followed
Functional Context Education principles and integrated basic skills
education (reading, math) with job skills training for non-traditional,
well-paying jobs for women, and business skills training. The last project
that I worked on with WOW was its Six strategies for Family Economic
Self-Sufficiency project.
As part of the project, in 1999 I worked with a women's organization in San
Francisco to illustrate how Functional Context Education (FCE) principles
could be followed in microenterprise trainng and development. This provides
a good resource for adult basic skills and vocational/job skills education
providers. Here is a little background about the Six Strategies project,
FCE, and Microenterprise Training and Development. Following are several
paragraphs about the project that are taken from information available
from WOW online at www.wowonline.org
Six Strategies for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency-Overview
For many families, especially those moving from welfare to work,
self-sufficiency cannot be achieved in a single step. It requires
strategies that create ladders out of poverty-strategies that provide the
assistance, guidance and time needed for families to become
self-sufficient. Recognizing this, Wider Opportunities for Women promotes
Six Strategies for Self-Sufficiency:
* The Self-Sufficiency Standard
* Targeting Higher-Wage Employment
* Nontraditional Employment for Women
* Functional Context Education
* Microenterprise Training and Development
* Individual Development Accounts
Why the Six Strategies?
* Because women currently earn 74¢ for every dollar men earn.
* Because 60% of all minimum wage workers are women.
* Because most welfare recipients leaving the rolls for work earn very low
wages.
* Because nearly one in three American households possesses zero or negative
assets.
These realities demonstrate the critical need for strategies that will help
families move out of poverty and into lasting economic security. The Six
Strategies are tools for individuals, community-based organizations, and
state- and local-level policymakers to use to truly help low-income families
move out of poverty and achieve long-term economic stability and
independence.
In today's policy environment-in which welfare and workforce legislation
have devolved power to states and localities-new and effective strategies
are urgently needed to aid low-income people:
Functional Context Education
* What it is and why it works
* Approaches
* State and federal legislation
* Resources pertaining to this strategy
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What it is and why it works
Functional Context Education (FCE) is an instructional strategy that
integrates the teaching of literacy skills and job content to move learners
more successfully and quickly toward their educational and employment goals.
Programs that use the FCE model are more effective than traditional programs
that teach basic skills and job skills in sequence because this innovative
approach teaches literacy and basic skills in the context in which the
learner will use them. Clients see clearly the role literacy skills play in
moving them toward their goals. This strategy promotes better retention,
encourages lifelong learning and supports the intergenerational transfer of
knowledge.
* For adults who have already experienced school failure, enrollment in
programs that use traditional approaches to teaching often reproduce that
failure. Functional context education programs address this problem by
using content related to adult goals to teach basic skills.
* Basic education and technical training must be relevant to the skills and
education required by jobs if low-income persons are going to succeed in
becoming economically self-sufficient. In addition, most adults do not have
time to spend years in basic education programs learning skills that may
seem unrelated to their educational and economic goals.
* Given welfare time limits and restrictions on education and training, it
is more important than ever that individuals master basic and job-specific
skills as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Microenterprise Training and Development
* What it is and why it works
* Approaches
* State and federal legislation
* Resources pertaining to this strategy
What it is and Why it Works
Microenterprise development is an income-generating strategy that helps
low-income people start or expand very small businesses. Generally, the
business is owned and operated by one person or family, has fewer than five
employees and can start up with a loan of less than $25,000. Microenterprise
is an attractive option for low-income women who may have lacked opportunity
but who are highly motivated and have skills in a particular craft or
service.
In the current weak economy, unemployment and underemployment are high. The
lack of quality employment options-especially for low-income, low-skilled
women-makes microenterprise development a critical strategy for moving
families out of poverty.
* Low-income women entrepreneurs, especially those living in rural or
inner-city communities isolated from the economic mainstream, often lack
the contacts and networks needed for business success.
* Peer networks (such as lending circles and program alumnae groups) help
women learn to earn from each other, build self-esteem and organize around
policy advocacy.
* Linkages between microentrepreneurs and more established women business
owners provide program participants with role models, facilitate an ongoing
transfer of skills, and expand networks.
I hope that adult literacy and vocational/job training educators can work
together with business, industry and those desiring microenterprise or
entrepreneurship education to follow WOW's six strategies for
self-sufficiency and develop effective programs that integrate basic skills
and vocational skills education. As Russ Tershy, the former Director of the
Center for Employment Training (CET) in San Jose, CA used to say, there is
only one piece of paper for undereducated adults more valuable than a GED
in times of need- a good paycheck!
This is the time to eschew literacy programs that are too often too
irrelevant to the critical life contexts of adults and to aim for strong,
intensive, meaningful basic skills/vocational skills education that can get
people on their economic feet quickly. Then that should be followed by
additional upskilling and further education. But first folks need a way to
make a good living!
Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net
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